SACRAMENTO, Calif. — U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. sentenced Michael Anthony Holmes, 25, of Fairfield, today to 15 years and eight months in prison for sex trafficking a minor, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court documents, from July 16, 2014, until September 4, 2015, Holmes recruited a 15-year-old runaway girl to engage in commercial sex acts with men for his financial benefit. Holmes transported her to multiple locations and collected the money that she earned. In July 2014, police officers found the girl and returned her to her mother. Nonetheless, Holmes continued to pressure the victim work for him, even while he was incarcerated on other charges. He wrote to her from jail and threatened that “there would be consequences” if she did not continue to make money for him.

This case was the product of an investigation by the FBI Solano County Violent Crime Task Force composed of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the California Highway Patrol, the Solano County Sheriff's Office, the Fairfield Police Department and the Vallejo Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. Click on the “resources” tab for information about internet safety education.